We have discovered an issue impacting some customers who have installed Exchange 2010 SP1 RU4 into their Exchange environment and as a result have removed SP1 RU4 from Download Center and recommend customers do not proceed with any planned deployments of SP1 RU4.

A small number of customers have reported when the Outlook client is used to move or copy a folder that subfolders and content for the moved folder are deleted. After investigation we have determined that the folder and item contents do not appear in the destination folder as expected but may be recovered from the Recoverable Items folder (what was previously known as Dumpster in older versions of Exchange) from the original folder. This behavior occurs due to a customer requested change in SP1 RU4 which allowed deleted Public Folders to be recovered. Outlook and Exchange are not correctly processing the folder move and copy operations causing the folder contents to appear to be deleted. OWA and Exchange Web Services clients are not affected by this change and process the folder move or copy actions correctly.

We will be providing a fix in Exchange 2010 SP1 RU5, scheduled for release in August, which prevents the content loss in the target location during the move/copy process. In addition, we are also working with the Outlook development team to examine their code for proper behavior and identify if a fix is necessary from the client. If you have already deployed SP1 RU4, we recommend obtaining an Interim Update that resolves this issue.

If you are a customer seeing this issue or would like to receive the Interim Update, please contact Microsoft Customer Support. When contacting Microsoft Customer Support, you can reference KB 2581545 (please note that this article will be available at a later date on support.microsoft.com). When installing the Interim Update, you need to install this on all Client Access and Mailbox servers that have SP1 RU4 installed.

We are commencing an internal review of our processes to determine how we can best prevent issues such as this one arising in future.

Once again, on behalf of the Exchange Product Group, I want to thank you for the patience you continue to show us while we work through these issues. We deeply regret the impact that this issue has had on you, our customers, and as always, we continue to identify ways to better serve your needs through our regular servicing releases.

@Martijn Westera - all versions of Outlook exhibit this behavior with SP1 RU4.

@monkiibiz - When using the Outlook client to COPY a folder stored on an Exchange server to a different location (e.g., User Mailbox, PST or Public Folder) a new folder is created, however message items in the folder being copied, including sub-folders, are not created in the destination folder. If the Outlook client is used to MOVE a folder stored on an Exchange Server Information Store to a store of a different type (e.g., Mailbox Store, Public Folder Store or PST), a new folder is created, however message items in the folder being moved, including sub-folders, are not created in the destination store and the items are deleted in the source location. Items deleted can be recovered in the source location using the Recover Deleted Items functionality available within the Outlook client.

Hi Kevin, Thanks for this. I can imagine things must be pretty rough there with a second Ru in a row to be pulled because of bad QA.

Ru 3, pulled

Ru 4, pulled.

I am going to install the interim update and stay the heck away from RU5 for a few months at least, who knows what you guys are going to break with that one... I for one am tired of being used as a beta tester. Can you please provide a link for the interim update? Its the least you guys can do

@Mike: I read that, but it will gets very messy now. Also, countless remarks along the lines of "here we go again" and "QA?". You know who are in the field getting questioned, explaining this to customers on our "rock solid messaging platform".

I hear ya. I’m sure the product group has gotten an earful already, but I can understand the sentiment. Personally (and I’m sure you too), this isn’t a real deterrent from going to Exchange, however many naysayers will use this as ‘evidence’ to support their position.

To keep it in perspective however, how many hundreds of updates does our favorite OS endure? ;)

I've been designing and deploying Exchange since version 4 and I have to say the 2010 code is the worse batch I have seen for Exchange so far. What did all the developers take a vacation on code checking and verification. I love working with Exchange but I'm tired of my customers either looking at me like I'm pulling their leg or acting like I CAUSED the issue.

Could anyone on the Exchange Team advise when the fix for the "content conversion failure" issue (resulting in connections being dropped by the Exchange server without any response to EWS clients) will be included in a rollup? Will it be in Rollup 5??

This has been a known issue for a long time now - and there are specific interim updates released to address it in Exchange 2010 SP1 Rollups 1, 2 and 3v3 ... although none yet for 4.

We are currently running the IU for 3v3 (Exchange2010-KB2449266-x64-en) and it is extremely frustrating to have to log a case with PSS to get the next non-public interim update each time we want to install a new rollup.

The big problem we have is that *each time* we log a case for the issue, the phone support denies that the issue exists and we have to jump through hoops to "prove" it to them before we get escalated.

(NB: We have a mixed MAC and PC environment - and can't afford for each new rollup to re-introduce this TCP dropped connection/delayed delivery issue).

With each rollup release I have had my fingers crossed that this fix would be included ... but not so far.

What is the holdup? Can you advise when this will be publicly released?

Contacted PSS to ask for the Interim update for Exchange 2010 SP1 RU4. However they said there was no Interim Update available at this time. Is there something in particular we should be asking for? Or should we be contacting someone other than PSS?

I had a call from MS Support last night to see if I had applied the update so they could close a call I had opened with them, so 12 hours ago they didn't know about this. Luckily for me the change control process at my client site is slow and we hadn't deployed it yet. I had also told my customer not to rush to deploy it as the previous update had been pulled and to wait and see what this update was like. Bullet doged.

Today my user report the same issue. But no RU4 installed - current versions is Exchange 2010 SP1 RU3 and Outlook 2010 SP1.

The user has a Outlook rules for automatic movement of incoming mails into inbox subfolders. The user reported that he had not found several subfolders today. Then we have restored them from the Recoverable Items folder. (Of course there is a possibility that the user has deleted subfolders himself).

This is the second time in a row I've been bitten by RU issues. I guess that is a case of more fool me! I'm getting really demoralized by this.

The Customer Support link above is next to useless. Please get a KB article up about this with a link to to the interim update. Wading through the mire of Customer Support is not an appealing prospect.

Just finished a migration project (ex2003->ex2010) at one of our customers. The setup of Exchange 2010 SP1 (DAG, CAS-Array etc.) was carried out with integration of RU4 (update-foler). I tested moving folders with content between mailbox and PST and vice versa when I heard of this issue. Everything worked as expected, no data was lost. All users use Outlook 2010 in online mode. So what is the recommendation? Leave everything as it is or talk to the customer (I think he will be "pleased" to hear this btw.) and remove RU4?

In our own company's Exchange 2010 installation we have this issue with moving folders, so I'm removing RU4 currently. A colleage from the purchase department already lost data, so we need to recover this today. Well, great job.....again. Hope that RU5 will be thoroughly tested before getting released. Thanks!

I think it's only cas, as I've not yet patched my mbx servers but I do have the problem. Does anyone have the interim patch available? Would you be so kind to send it to dirk<dot>vermeulen<at>live<dot>nl

We uninstalled Update Rollup 4 from both of our Exchange Servers last week. Just went to Programs and Features --> View Installed Updates and removed from there. Went fine, no issues whatsoever, and now our users are able to copy folders to PST files without losing content.

I will NOT be installed RU5 until at least a few months have gone by, I tell you that!

@Dirk, Its 30mb large so email isnt an option. For an FTP server I can upload this umm pic? I am just about to finish off installing it on my CAS servers at our DR site to test it. Hopefully I dont need to deploy this to mbx boxes as well.

@Joe, unfortunatly I really need the fixes that Ru4 provided, namely the fix to migrating users from Ex2003 to Ex2010. I have been on a call with MS PSS for over 8 weeks trying to resolve an issue where 20% of our users migrating from ex2003 to ex2010 failed. This is a large number when you talking 1000s of users. The failed migrated users required manual intervention, about 5-10 mins per mailbox... I was not happy having to spend hours each night to setup a few users to migrate over. Ru4 fixed that and the DAG disconnection issue, so if the interim update works we will just stay on it for awhile. Agreed with you on the Ru5, not touching for a few months.

@All - Thanks for your patience, and I apologize for your inability to obtain the Interim Update. When you call into support you can reference KB 2581545. Please note that this KB article has not been published, so it will not resolve on support.microsoft.com (it's forthcoming). When you receive this IU, you must install it on all CAS and Mailbox servers that have SP1 RU4 installed.

@Vojin - You can uninstall the IU, by going into the Control Panel, selecting "Uninstall a Program" and clicking "View Installed Updates".

@Gulab and Brian - You can either uninstall SP1 RU4 which will revert your Exchange server back to the previously installed rollup/SP version, or you can obtain the IU from support and stay on SP1 RU4.

@Mark – We are looking at how to include a long-term fix into the Exchange 2010 product for the EWS content conversion error issue. At this time, I cannot provide a timeline or speak to the vehicle it will ship in. Unfortunately that means, you will have to continue resolving this issue with an Interim Update based on the rollup version you are deploying. When the fix vehicle is finalized , the issue resolution will be listed in the release notes.

right, I have just installed the interim update on just my CAS servers and it has resolved the issue. @Ross, howcome you say this has to be installed on both? Have you guys just tested it just installing it on CAS servers? I am rolling it out just to our CAS servers tonight as testing shows me there isnt a point in upadting the MBX servers, unless you can tell us otherwise.

@AnnoyedChris - As I stated in an earlier comment, public folder copy operations are affected as well when using Outlook. Outlook clients connect to the RPC Client Access service on the Mailbox server role hosting the PF; therefore, if you want to ensure data is not lost as a result of moving or copying PF folders from one PF to another when using Outlook, you need to deploy this on your Mailbox servers.

Support are utter useless for this, and can't provide a download even when given the KB number listed. The fool I happened to get wanted to collect Application & System Logs from "the" Exchange server. We have 15, so he was going to be a busy man. I hung up, and will try for someone else with a clue later.

I have another suggestion for RU5. You should finaly resolve the conflict with Forefront Protection for Exchange that causes the Information Store to not start back up. These are both Microsoft products and should work together. At a minimum there should be a pre-install notice. Also how do you deal with doing this via windows update?

FYI

“For those of you running Forefront, be sure you perform these important steps from the command line in the Forefront directory before and after this rollup’s installation process. Without these steps, Exchange services for Information Store and Transport will not start back up. You will need to disable ForeFront via "fscutility /disable" before installing the patch and then re-enable after the patch by running "fscutility /enable" to start it up again post installation."

Is the issue in Exchange 2010 SP1 RU4 (KB2581545) also a problem in Exchange 2007? Specifically is it safe to install Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3 released 7/7/2011 to resolve issues with RU3?